The present invention relates generally to devices for performing human skeletal adjustment, and more particularly to a new and improved, portable, multi-drop, treatment apparatus which facilitates multiple, rapid, sequential drops to provide a greater range of skeletal adjustment with reduced patient discomfort during the adjustment process. The portable treatment apparatus is designed to enable a chiropractor or doctor to use the apparatus on both drop-equipped and non-drop equipped treatment tables.
Single drop devices are well known in the prior art and are designed to adjust the patient's skeletal area in need of adjustment in one continuous motion. The patient experiences the total force of the single drop apparatus all at once. This causes a relatively major, rapid, skeletal adjustment often resulting in severe patient discomfort. Many examples of such drop tables or drop devices exist in the pertinent prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,497 by Westphal discloses a portable, collapsible, treatment table with drop sections. This patent discloses a base member having a lifting handle which is in engagement with a piston or lift column mounted in a vertical bore in the base member. The piston or lift column is provided with an annular groove which engages a ball-bearing. The amount of pressure exerted on the ball-bearing in the detent is governed by a threaded adjustment shaft which laterally extends into the base member perpendicular to the vertical piston bore. Adjustment of the screw exerts varying degrees of pressure on the ball-bearing and thereby on the detent of the piston.
When the assembly is cocked by engaging the lift handle, the lift column moves upwardly until the ball-bearing is seated in the lower annular groove. The amount of pressure exerted by the ball-bearing in the groove determines the amount of drop pressure that must be applied on the elevated cushion to move the cushion rapidly downward for a drop action, thereby making the needed chiropractic adjustments on the patients. It is known, therefore, that by tightening or loosening the tension control knob, the desired amount of applied pressure can be controlled for the drop mechanisms. Each of the drop mechanisms on this table are similarly constructed, and there are drops provided for the neck, back, and pelvic regions of the patient. While this patent discloses a structure which is analogous to that of the present invention, this patent clearly does not show the combination of multiple drop mechanisms used in series to break discrete skeletal adjustments into smaller sequential drops as contemplated by the present invention.